Government

Party: Democrat.
Age: 66.
Residence: Sumter.
Family: Wife, Sarah. Daughters, Julia and Lydia.
Education: Graduated from Edmunds High School in Sumter in 1968. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina in 1971 and his law degree from USC in 1974.
Employment: Retired. Worked as a senior adviser on tax law for the Wall Street financial firm Goldman Sachs.
Civic involvement: Treasurer at St. Stephen’s Chapel (Anglican), 2003-07.
Political experience: None.
Top issues:

Party: Republican.
Age: 63.
Residence: Rock Hill.
Family: Elaine R. Norman, wife of 42 years, whose family is from Lancaster. They have a son, three daughters and 15 grandchildren.
Education: Graduated from Rock Hill High School in 1971. Received bachelor’s degree in business from Presbyterian College in 1975.
Employment: President, Warren Norman & Co., real estate development firm.

Party: Democrat.
Age: 40.
Residence: Fort Mill.
Family: Children Alaysha and Greylin.
Education: Graduated in 1994 from Madisonville North Hopkins High School in Madisonville, Ky. Received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Phoenix in 2007 and an MBA from Walden University in 2009. Received federal veteran service officer training from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Party: Democrat.
Age: 26.
Residence: Rock Hill.
Family: The Hartsville native married a Marine in 2013. He is a helicopter mechanic at Marine Corps Air Station New River, in Jacksonville, N.C. They have two children, Avery, 3, and Aliza, 7 months. Frank’s mother teaches special education at Rock Hill High School, and her brother teaches at Winthrop University.

A Fort Mill man was charged April 17 after he was accused of stealing campaign signs along Doby’s Bridge Road and Fort Mill Parkway.
Scott Kodell, 51, is charged with one count of petit larceny for the Easter afternoon crime.
According to the York County Sheriff’s Office incident report, Kodell was observed stealing signs by Indian Land resident Joe St. John, campaign manager for Republican 5th District congressional candidate Tommy Pope.

The list of five third-party candidates seeking the 5th Congressional District seat has dropped to four.
Victor Kocher (pronounced “CO-her”) was selected as the nominee of the S.C. Libertarian Party early this month in Columbia over opponents Nathaniel Cooper and Bill Bledsoe.
The self-employed Kocher, 55, has previously sought public office several times dating back to 2008. Most recently, he ran for the S.C. House District 79 seat in 2016 and the U.S. Senate held by Lindsey Graham in 2014.

Gov. Henry McMaster signed a controversial bipartisan pension-reform bill Tuesday that will pump money into the state pension system to ensure that state and local government retirees will get what they’ve been promised.
The S.C. House approved the bill in late February, and the state Senate approved it April 5. McMaster had until midnight Tuesday to sign the bill into law.
While the legislation does prop up the state’s in-the-hole pension plan, McMaster called it only the first step, noting that more must be done.

Sheri Few is sticking to her guns, particularly the prominent AR-15 in her most recent online political ad.
Few, one of seven Republicans running for the 5th Congressional District seat, has been the most incendiary campaigner from the start.
Friday she drew criticism for a 30-second commercial that she started airing on her website. The ad criticizes fellow Republicans Tommy Pope and Ralph Norman for voting to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds in 2015.